After the White House chief medical advisor briefed Biden on the variant, he declared another absurd restriction. Other countries are now complaining saying that restriction is unfair. How will these ridiculous COVID Restrictions affect the country and the economy?
According to Biden’s senior administration officials, the United States will restrict travel for non-U.S. citizens from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday. This is part of a global effort to stem the spread of the heavily mutated omicron variant of Covid-19.
The World Health Organization officials called this new Covid-19 variation “Omicron”. This another variation has reportedly sprouted up in South Africa in recent weeks.
Aside from South Africa, other countries included in the new restrictions are Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi. Biden was briefed on the variant Friday by Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical advisor, as a growing list of countries issued their own travel bans.
As we all remember, most of the prominent Democrats — including Biden himself and media members — once suggested that Donald Trump’s travel ban on China was racist.
Joe Biden vs. Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/3qsX4ooBU5
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) April 30, 2021
Biden said in a statement, according to Fox News:
“This morning I was briefed by my chief medical advisor, Dr. Tony Fauci, and the members of our COVID response team, about the Omicron variant, which is spreading through Southern Africa.
As a precautionary measure, until we have more information, I am ordering additional air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries. These new restrictions will take effect on November 29.”
Biden then went pushed his typical vaccination rhetoric, suggesting pandemic restrictions will not end until the entire world is vaccinated.
Biden continued:
“The news about this new variant should make clearer than ever why this pandemic will not end until we have global vaccinations.
I call on the nations gathering next week for the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting to meet the U.S. challenge to waive intellectual property protections for COVID vaccines, so these vaccines can be manufactured globally.”
Watch it here: Youtube/NBC News
On Thursday, WHO declared its discovery of the new variant “Omicron” stating that it has more mutations than previous strains. Omicron reportedly has the potential to evade antibodies.
Dr @mvankerkhove gives an update on #COVID19 virus variant B.1.1.529, during the #AskWHO session on 25 November 2021 ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ZpflfEYzW9
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) November 25, 2021
The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution met today to review what is known about the #COVID19 variant B.1.1.529.
They advised WHO that it should be designated a Variant of Concern.
WHO has named it Omicron, in line with naming protocols https://t.co/bSbVas9yds pic.twitter.com/Gev1zIt1Ek— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) November 26, 2021
The new variant has reportedly also been seen in Israel and Hong Kong, apart from South Africa.
When asked about the market losses, Biden said the reaction didn’t surprise him.
Biden answered:
“They always do when something with Covid arises.”
Allegedly, due to this new Covid-19 variant, stocks began to tumble on Black Friday. At one point, the Dow Jones was down between 900 and 1,000 points, or approximately 2.5 percent. Moreover, the S&P 500 fell by roughly 100 points, or about two percent, while the Nasdaq took a near 300-point dip, approximating a 3 percent loss.
Currently, the price of oil fell to below 10 percent, coming out at about $70 per barrel, while global oil was down to a similar $75 per barrel in West Texas.
Sources: westernjournal, cnbc, Youtube/NBC News